Cultivation in Iparralde has lost 930 hectares in one year
- The SAFER structure in charge of selling farmland and farms has just published data from 2021. Jean-Claude Saint-Jean, president of the technical assembly of the Northern Basque Country, has denounced that the “power of money” is a “cancer” of cultivation.
Cambo, Arbona, and now Bidaxune. The list of farmland acquired by speculators is being completed during the day – and more of them disappear silently. Evidence of this is the data offered by the SAFER structure of the Northern Basque Country at the conference held on 12 October in Uharte-Garazi: Of the 2,326 hectares sold in 2021, 40% are non-farmers, with a total of 930 hectares. Compared to other territories, the problem is felt much faster in the Northern Basque Country, as in Bearne, for example, 23% of these sales are taken from the primary sector last year.
In Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea and Zuberoa, 170,000 hectares of crops are counted, including 50,000 hectares of grassland and collective alhapides, which usually maintain this function. On average, at departmental and area level, the hectare costs between EUR 3,080 and EUR 9,450. The increase in value between 2020 and 2021 has been 2%.
The president of the technical assembly of the Northern Basque Country, Jean-Claude Saint-Jean, has criticised the speculative trend of the wealthy, denouncing that the "power of money" is the "cancer" of cultivation. Close monitoring and control is essential: “Without land management we cannot do anything, the continuity of the farms cannot be guaranteed. That is how I see no future for cultivation”:
Increase in land sales: In 2021 they were 30% more than in 2020. This indicates that there are no farms that can move forward. In the Northern Basque Country, however, the situation is more optimistic with regard to data from the French State: In the mountainous area of New Aquitaine (including the Basque Country), 8.4 of the accesses to the 10 retas occur.
These numbers are detailed in number 1.445 of the ELB trade union Laborari newspaper.
New case in Bidaxun
The last case of speculation known to the population is that of Bidaxun: A Parisian millionaire buys 65 hectares worth EUR 1 million, including the stronghold, which should be a working instrument in itself. It will officially devote the land to the breeding of sport horses and, for its acquisition, created the structure of the Civil Society for Agricultural Exploitation in September. Thus, legislation allows everything and the land remains for cultivation... but without food production.
The action capacity of the SAFER structure is limited in these cases: "I have withdrawn the dossier, the situation has been well analysed, the technical committee has regretted this situation, that is, in view of the price it would not be possible to set a farmer", following what Saint-Jean says Kazeta.eus. "The only thing achieved" is the rejection of 30 hectares to be able to install a farmer.
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